1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to beverage carafe warmers, and, more particularly, to beverage warmers that employ inductive heating.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Beverage carafe warmers of the type that employ an electrically resistive heating pad, or base, upon which the carafe is supported are well known. A problem with such electrically resistive heating pad is that even when no carafe is present, they remain energized and may become quite hot and present burn risks to the users of the equipment. It is also known to provide carafes and the like with funnel assemblies having down-tubes attached to the bottoms of the assemblies to pass freshly brewed beverage from a hot beverage maker, such as a coffee brewer, to the bottom of the carafe to increase mixing of the beverage in the carafe through creation of convection currents. The freshly brewed beverage is hottest when first passed through the down-tube to the bottom. It, therefore, immediately begins to rise toward the top which pushes downwardly, along the sides, cooler beverage that had been previously added. Without the down-tube all of the hottest beverage would rise to the top and remain there.
It is known to use inductive heating in various situations, but such inductive heating has not been achieved in association with the advantages obtained with use of a down-tube in a carafe.